For purposes of clarity, the following definition is offered for the term “split-cycle engine” as may be applied to engines disclosed in the prior art and as referred to in the present application.
A split-cycle engine as referred to herein comprises:
a crankshaft rotatable about a crankshaft axis;
a compression piston slidably received within a compression cylinder and operatively connected to the crankshaft such that the compression piston reciprocates through an intake stroke and a compression stroke during a single rotation of the crankshaft;
an expansion (power) piston slidably received within an expansion cylinder and operatively connected to the crankshaft such that the expansion piston reciprocates through an expansion stroke and an exhaust stroke during a single rotation of the crankshaft; and
a crossover passage interconnecting the compression and expansion cylinders, the crossover passage including a crossover compression (XovrC) valve and a crossover expansion (XovrE) valve defining a pressure chamber therebetween.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,225 granted Apr. 8, 2003 to Carmelo J. Scuderi (herein Scuderi) contains an extensive discussion of split-cycle and similar type engines. In addition the patent discloses details of a prior version of an engine of which the present invention comprises a further development.
Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary embodiment of a prior art split-cycle engine concept of the type described in Scuderi is shown generally by numeral 10. The split-cycle engine 10 replaces two adjacent cylinders of a conventional four-stroke engine with a combination of one compression cylinder 12 and one expansion cylinder 14. These two cylinders 12, 14 perform their respective functions once per crankshaft 16 revolution. The intake air and fuel charge is drawn into the compression cylinder 12 through typical poppet-style intake valves 18. The compression cylinder piston 20 pressurizes the charge and drives the charge through the crossover passage 22, which acts as the intake passage for the expansion cylinder 14.
A check type crossover compression (XovrC) valve 24 at the crossover passage inlet is used to prevent reverse flow from the crossover passage 22. A crossover expansion (XovrE) valve 26 at the outlet of the crossover passage 22 controls flow of the pressurized intake charge such that the charge fully enters the expansion cylinder 14 shortly after the expansion piston 30 reaches its top dead center (TDC) position. Spark plug 28 is fired soon after the intake charge enters the expansion cylinder 14 and the resulting combustion drives the expansion cylinder piston 30 down toward bottom dead center (BDC). Exhaust gases are pumped out of the expansion cylinder through poppet exhaust valves 32.
With the split-cycle engine concept, the geometric engine parameters (i.e., bore, stroke, connecting rod length, compression ratio, etc.) of the compression and expansion cylinders are generally independent from one another. For example, the crank throws 34, 36 for each cylinder may have different radii and be phased apart from one another with top dead center (TDC) of the expansion cylinder piston 30 occurring prior to TDC of the compression cylinder piston 20. This independence enables the split-cycle engine to potentially achieve higher efficiency levels and greater torques than typical four-stroke engines.
However, the crossover expansion valve of a split-cycle engine, unlike conventional four stroke engines, has a very small window of actuation timing (about 30 crank angle degrees) in which to open and deliver a turbulent high pressure air/fuel charge into the engine expansion cylinder for ignition, combustion and expansion in the cylinder. In view of the high pressures and small actuation timing involved, an alternative to mechanical valve actuation was desired for actuation of the engine valves, and the crossover expansion valve in particular.